Birthday present

My wonderful wife got me a miter saw for my birthday. Now I don't have to borrow the neighbor's saw to cut my new siding pieces. This is awesome!!!



I cleaned up this area quite a bit. All new siding, new foam insulation on the air conditioner pipe, and painted the PVC furnace pipes too.



Pulled off a bit more asphalt siding on the west side. Nothing to replace here. The condition of the wood is just remarkable.

Porch door threshold

With the new wood screen door in place, we needed a new threshold for the porch door. The old one was rotting from water damage. When I pulled the threshold up, the floor boards looked great underneath. I cleaned the area up and gave it a coat of primer. I bought a new oak threshold and primed the back of it. To get the right look and color, the stain was traditional pecan, followed by numerous coats of amber shellac, then a couple coats of wax free shellac. To weather proof it, a coat of spar varnish. The door will match the threshold once it's refinished.

Wood screen door

Stripped and repainted the whole porch door frame over the weekend. Then I finally got to hang our wood screen door. It was so nice to get rid of that heavy storm door. Winston likes the screen door too!

More on the west side

Although it rained most of the weekend, Monday I was able to top coat more on the west side. The siding looks really great in the sun. That's when you get the most shadow on the bottom of each board. The house is really getting some nice lines!

West side weekend

I focused on the west side of the house this weekend. The original siding is in remarkable shape on this side. Which is surprising since it probably sees the most weather. Maybe the afternoon sun on this side keeps it dryer? The side door frame is new. I had to cut new siding for around the frame since it was all cut short. I did get to re-use some good siding from other parts of the house. The kitchen window on this side use to be longer, so there was a hole under the window. Patched in some replacement sheathing, new tar paper, and we were all set.

Front view

Today I gave the front porch a top coat of paint. We needed a bit of curb appeal. With the exception of the windows and corner boards that need repainting, the house looks great from the front!

Front porch project

After alot of consideration, I decided to put all new siding on the front porch. For two reasons. One, the siding is just nailed to the studs on the porch (no sheathing) so there were alot of cracked boards due to the tear off of two other layers. And two, although structurally sound, the porch has settled over 80 some years. This created a dip in the middle. With new siding we can give it a straighter look. My neighbor Jerry had the system for creating the "optical illusion" of a straighter porch.
A two foot wasp or hornet's nest that is probably decades old.



After a long day, I still was able to throw a coat of primer on our new porch siding.